I eat, I sleep, I obsess about pop culture.

Tag: Mark Ruffalo

2016 has been a fairly successful one at the movies so far. I’ve been to the movies 13 times but most of that was catching up on some late 2015 releases. (Top 25 blog now available for dissection!) Of the 7 new releases I’ve watched, I’ve loved two (10 Cloverfield Laneand Hail, Caesar!), was pleasantly surprised by another (How To Be Single) and liked a few a great deal (The Witch, Zootopia, Midnight Special). And I also saw a giant stinker that I’ll be holding over my brother’s head for the rest of eternity (Deadpool, obviously). My actual anticipated list for this summer is uncharacteristically short but don’t mistake that for apathy or disinterest. While there’s a lot of movies I’m on the fence about this summer, the ones I am excited for, I am absolutely hysterical over.

I actually completed this year’s Top 25 by mid-January but then I was so hyped about movies that I couldn’t stop watching them long enough to actually write this post. (The struggle is real.) As usual, I didn’t make my goal of publishing this before Oscar season ended and this is all woefully irrelevant now but I’m continuing on. You can call me tardy but never a quitter.

According to my adorably painstaking Letterboxd score-keeping, I went to the theatre 45 times to see 39 different films. Of those 39 films, 29 were new releases; other trips included 5 holdovers from 2014 (Into the Woods, Top Five, Inherent Vice, Selma and American Sniper), special anniversary screenings of Home Alone and the three Back To The Future films and a test screening of the 2016 unintentional comedy masterpiece The 5th Wave. The rest of my trips were encores of Avengers: Age of Ultron (my first IMAX 3D splurge!), Mad Max: Fury Road (two encores, technically), Magic Mike XXL, The Night Before (I saw a test screening and went again when it was released) and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Through the magic of modern viewing habits, I obviously saw way more than 29 films from 2015 (a Top 25 would be ridiculous in that case); listed below are my favorites of the year along with a few other categories, just for fun. Spoiler-free unless otherwise marked, because what am I, a monster?

Oh the films of 2014, it’s safe to say that we got along quite well. I made 56 trips to 10 different movie theatres to see 47 different films: 41 new releases, 5 hold-outs from 2013 (Inside Llewyn Davis, Nebraska, Her, the R-rated super-cut re-release of Anchorman 2 and Frozen) and a 10th anniversary screening of Saw. The rest of my 56 trips were comprised of one encore each of The Fault In Our Stars and 22 Jump Street, 2 return visits to Captain America: The Winter Soldier and an admittedly ridiculous 5 repeat viewings of Guardians of the Galaxy.

Thanks to the modern marvels of VOD, the ever-shrinking theatrical window and the fact that it’s March (ha), I ended up seeing 70 total releases from 2014. I was feeling extra opinionated this year, so alongside my Top 25 is some new categories. (Presented with jump links because we fancy now that we moved to WordPress!) (And all spoiler-free because I’m nice like that!)

2014 has been fairly solid for movies so far. I mean, The Lego Movie was miraculous, Veronica Mars lives again and The Raid 2 exists. (Don’t get me started on Captain America: The Winter Soldier. No, seriously, don’t get me started. I can and will talk about that movie for hours.) Last year’s summer movie season was a bit disappointing for me but I am confident that 2014’s crop is basically unimpeachable. (Aaaaand let’s hope I didn’t just jinx our entire summer, guys.)

In 2012, I made 49 trips to the theatre to see 42 different movies: 35 new releases, 5 releases from 2011 that I didn’t make it to before the end of that year (The Adventures of Tintin, Hugo, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, The Artist and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.), a screening of the 3D re-release of Beauty and The Beast, 1 encore each of 21 Jump Street,Magic Mike (I was big on Channing Tatum this year apparently) and Looper, 2 encores each of The Avengers and The Cabin in the Woods (I was big on Joss Whedon as well) and a special one night only showing of Pulp Fiction to celebrate the release of the “Tarantino XX” Blu-Ray collection.The following list is presented without commentary (because otherwise it never would’ve gotten finished) but for full film reviews you can visit my film diary at Letterboxd.com!(more…)

As far as movies go, 2013 has been a bit boring so far. There were the movies we assumed would be great (Spring Breakers and Side Effects), the movies we assumed would be bad (A Good Day To Die Hard and G.I. Joe: Retaliation. No offense, Bruce Willis.) and a couple of small but pleasant surprises (I enjoyed Warm Bodies and Oz: The Great and Powerful more than I ever expected to). But think about last year at this time: we already had movies like The Cabin in The Woods, 21 Jump Street, Chronicle and The Grey under our belts and we were mere days away from The Avengers! I’m hoping that the upcoming summer movie season is just an embarrassment of riches because the spring movie season was kind of just embarrassing.

But when it comes to movies, I am eternally an optimist so I’ve compiled a list of 15 movies that could most definitely turn 2013 around. Here’s to hoping!(more…)